Re: The Amish

2005-01-01 Thread Marty Lederman 



A link to the Labi article:  http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2005/feature_labi_janfeb05.html

  - Original Message - 
  From: 
  Sanford Levinson 
  To: Law & Religion issues for Law 
  Academics 
  Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 4:06 
  PM
  Subject: RE: The Amish
  
  
  I strongly recommend an 
  article by Nadya Labi, "The Gentle People," in the current issue of Legal 
  Affairs.  It argues that incest is rife within Amish communities and 
  that, basically, the community does next to nothing to control it, other than 
  pressing the victims to "forgive" the perpetrators (who go on 
  perpetrating).  It is, I think, an essential "corrective," as it were, to 
  the image of the Amish portrayed in Yoder.  At the very least, there 
  seems to be no good reason to be less concerned about child abuse within the 
  Amish community than, say, the abuse that is alleged with regard to polygamous 
  "old-Mormon" communities or, indeed, pedophilia within the Catholic 
  Church.  Even if the article is off by 50% with regard to the actual 
  number of young women who are raped or otherwise abused by their fathers 
  and, especially, brothers, it nevertheless states a powerful claim.  
  One of its central points is the practical inability of the formal legal 
  system to do much about this, inasmuch as some prosecutors treat the 
  perpetrators like football players in Virginia (i.e., there's a lot of turning 
  the eye away); more seriouis, perhaps, is the very strong code within the 
  Amish community that effectively prevents "going to law" to resolve such 
  problems.  The only effective remedy appears to be physically running 
  away, by young women who, of course, have received nothing that could possibly 
  count as an education adequate to allow them to flourish in what is 
  disdainfully termed, by the Amish, the "English" society.  No doubt there 
  are many wonderful people among the Amish, though, of course, I suspect that 
  most of us have never met anyone who actually lives within that community, 
  just as most of us have never had the pleasure of meeting a Satmar Hasid from 
  Kiryat Joel.  We are ultimately reduced to a version of "making up 
  stories" about how they actually live their lives and (mis)treat their 
  children and whether the FE Clause gives them a pass from any genuine 
  monitoring by the "external" legal order.
   
  A Happy New Year to all!
   
  sandy
  
  

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RE: The Amish

2005-01-01 Thread Sanford Levinson 





I strongly recommend an 
article by Nadya Labi, "The Gentle People," in the current issue of Legal 
Affairs.  It argues that incest is rife within Amish communities and that, 
basically, the community does next to nothing to control it, other than pressing 
the victims to "forgive" the perpetrators (who go on perpetrating).  It is, 
I think, an essential "corrective," as it were, to the image of the Amish 
portrayed in Yoder.  At the very least, there seems to be no good reason to 
be less concerned about child abuse within the Amish community than, say, the 
abuse that is alleged with regard to polygamous "old-Mormon" communities or, 
indeed, pedophilia within the Catholic Church.  Even if the article is off 
by 50% with regard to the actual number of young women who are raped or 
otherwise abused by their fathers and, especially, brothers, it 
nevertheless states a powerful claim.  One of its central points is the 
practical inability of the formal legal system to do much about this, inasmuch 
as some prosecutors treat the perpetrators like football players in Virginia 
(i.e., there's a lot of turning the eye away); more seriouis, perhaps, is the 
very strong code within the Amish community that effectively prevents "going to 
law" to resolve such problems.  The only effective remedy appears to be 
physically running away, by young women who, of course, have received nothing 
that could possibly count as an education adequate to allow them to flourish in 
what is disdainfully termed, by the Amish, the "English" society.  No doubt 
there are many wonderful people among the Amish, though, of course, I suspect 
that most of us have never met anyone who actually lives within that community, 
just as most of us have never had the pleasure of meeting a Satmar Hasid from 
Kiryat Joel.  We are ultimately reduced to a version of "making up stories" 
about how they actually live their lives and (mis)treat their children and 
whether the FE Clause gives them a pass from any genuine monitoring by the 
"external" legal order.
 
A Happy New Year to all!
 
sandy
___
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw

Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.  
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can 
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the 
messages to others.